Germany: BASF has completed a pilot, with Frankfurt-based housing society ABG and external thermal insulation composite systems producer Sto, testing an insulation board based on expandable polystyrene (EPS) containing recycled material. Around 10% of the polystyrene was replaced with a recycled substitute during the test. The results showed that the newly developed board met the same quality standards as standard market products. The sustainability targets of ABG was one of the key impetuses for the project.
BASF used its Neopor F 5 Mcycled product in the test. It is a graphite-containing expandable polystyrene granulate that contains 10% recycled material. The recycled material comes from mechanically recycled EPS waste. The aim is to other byproducts for the production of Neopor Mcycled in the future, such as EPS off-cuts from construction sites.